Two calls keeps Kamloops search and rescue teams busy for last weekend of August

By Brendan Kergin

Kamloops Search and Rescue search manager Alan Hobler and an air ambulance on the scene of an injured hunter near Long Lake Road south of Kamloops.

Image Credit: Contributed by Mike Ritcey/Kamloops Search and Rescue

August 29, 2016 - 2:30 PM

KAMLOOPS - Kamloops Search and rescue had a busy, but positive, Sunday.

Three people needed help in two incidents Sunday afternoon and evening, Aug. 29, search manager Alan Hobler says.

“We had one rescue and one search,” he says. “The first one was a hunter that was setting up a hunting platform.”

The man fell about 15 feet from the platform onto the ground in Knutsford off Long Lake Road, south of Kamloops. While Hobler isn’t sure how the call came in, the rescue team was mobilized in the late afternoon. However, as they arrived on scene, the air ambulance was able to reroute to the area and find space nearby to land.

“Finding a hole out there for it is difficult,” Hobler says.

The hunter was taken to hospital. Hobbler isn’t sure to what extent the hunter was injured.

A few hours later the team was called for a search near Roche Lake in the evening, south east of Kamloops, for a pair doing some off-roading in a Jeep. They were stuck on an old forestry road, Hobler says, and unsure of their location. While the search team was called to scour the area, as they arrived on scene they were called off because RCMP were able to locate the pair.

“RCMP was able to ping their cell phone,” he says. “This time it was reasonably accurate.”

Police were able to get an SUV nearby and help the pair while search teams were stood down.

With Labour Day weekend coming up, the last peak weekend for search and rescue calls during the summer season, Hobler is encouraging people heading into the wild to go to AdventureSmart.ca for tips and tools.

While the summer season will slow down, hunting season will bring new challenges, he says.

“Lost hunters are always a little harder to find,” he says. “They tend to walk away and not follow paths.”

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.

OPINION The tight integration between oil companies, governments, and the rest of the economy has led to chaos in the oil markets recently and will have predictable effects in the months and years to come. Those makin